You set up your service area in the Service Area card on the Service Area page in your back office. (Yes — the card has the same name as the page.)

1. Open your back office.
2. In the sidebar, click Admin → Service Area.
3. Scroll past the Custom Domain, Logo, Favicon, Owner Photo, and E-E-A-T Profile cards.
4. You'll see the Service Area card with the geo scope dropdown at the top, then a form with location fields.

Your investor service area configuration lives in one card and powers every location-specific phrase across your site.

You quick-fill the service area from a ZIP code by using the Quick Fill box at the top of the Service Area card. One ZIP code populates seven fields automatically — city, state, county, metro, region, nearby cities, and ZIP codes served.

1. In the Service Area card, find the 📍 Quick Fill from ZIP Code box at the top.
2. Type a 5-digit ZIP code from your primary service area (e.g., 85001 for Phoenix).
3. Click Auto-Fill.
4. Wait a second. The status text shows what got filled — for example: "✅ Filled: City, State, County, Metro, Nearby Cities (8), ZIP Codes (24)."
5. Review the fields below. Adjust anything that's off.

Quick Fill skips fields that already have values, so you can safely click Auto-Fill on a partially-filled form. If some fields were skipped, the status line shows an Overwrite all? link — click it to force a full replace from ZIP data.

What Quick Fill doesn't set: geo scope (you choose), Investment Area (only used when scope is Custom), Service Radius (defaults to 25 miles), and Neighborhoods. Neighborhoods are hyperlocal areas a ZIP lookup can't infer.

After Quick Fill, scroll to the geo scope dropdown and pick your scope, then save. You're done in under a minute.

Geo scope is the dropdown that controls how the {{site.geo}} token renders across your site. It tells SiteStakes whether to write "Phoenix" or "Phoenix Metro" or "Central Arizona" or your own custom phrase when the {{site.geo}} token appears in content.

The dropdown has five options:

• City — {{site.geo}} resolves to your primary city (e.g., "Phoenix")
• Metro — resolves to your metro area (e.g., "Phoenix Metro")
• Region — resolves to your region (e.g., "Central Arizona")
• State — resolves to your full state name (e.g., "Arizona")
• Custom — resolves to whatever you type in the Investment Area field that appears below

Pick the scope that best describes how you talk about your service area in marketing. Most investors pick City if they target one city, Metro if they cover multiple cities in one metro, or Custom if their territory has a recognizable name (e.g., "the Phoenix West Valley").

Pick Custom when you describe your investment area as your own phrase — something like "the Phoenix West Valley" or "Maricopa County and surrounding areas." That phrase replaces {{site.geo}} everywhere on your investment area website.

Real estate target area setup means filling in nine fields. Each one powers a specific token used in your content.

City (required)

The primary city where you do business.

1. Click the City field.
2. Type your primary city name (e.g., Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta).

This is the most-used token on your site. It appears in page titles, hero headlines, blog posts, location pages, and footer NAP. Be specific — "Phoenix" not "Phoenix area."

State Abbreviation (required)

Your state's 2-letter postal code.

1. Click the State Abbreviation field.
2. Type the 2-letter code (e.g., AZ, TX, FL).

Used in addresses, NAP, schema markup, and SEO meta. Always uppercase — SiteStakes auto-uppercases what you type.

State Full Name

Your state spelled out.

1. Click the State Full Name field.
2. Type the full name (e.g., Arizona, Texas, Florida).

Used in blog content, ebook footers, and the {{site.state_full}} token. Search engines treat "Phoenix, Arizona" as a stronger local signal than "Phoenix, AZ" — both versions matter, in different contexts.

County

The county your primary city sits in.

1. Click the County field.
2. Type the county name with the word "County" included (e.g., Maricopa County, Harris County, Cobb County).

Used in location pages, schema areaServed, and content targeting county-level real estate searches.

Metro Area

The broader metro area your city is part of.

1. Click the Metro Area field.
2. Type the metro name (e.g., Phoenix Metro, Houston Metro Area, Greater Atlanta).

Used in content targeting metro-level searches like "we buy houses in [metro]." Powers {{site.metro}} and the metro option of the {{site.geo}} dropdown.

Region

The named region your business sits in.

1. Click the Region field.
2. Type the region name (e.g., Central Arizona, Southeast Texas, Atlanta Suburbs).

Used in long-form blog content and the region option of {{site.geo}}. Useful when your service area is best described regionally rather than by city or metro.

Nearby Cities

Cities surrounding your primary city that you also serve.

1. Click the Nearby Cities field.
2. Type the nearby cities you also work in, separated by commas (e.g., Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert).

Each nearby city becomes a candidate for an auto-generated location page (covered separately in the "Set up location pages" step). The list also powers the {{site.nearby_cities}} token, used in service area pages and SEO content.

Don't pad the list. List nearby cities you actually do business in — 5 to 15 is typical. Listing 50 cities to "cover more ground" makes your nearby cities token render as a wall of city names that hurts readability.

ZIP Codes Served

All ZIP codes inside your service area.

1. Click the ZIP Codes Served field.
2. Type the ZIP codes separated by commas (e.g., 85001, 85002, 85003, 85004).

Used by listing search, Google Maps queries, and schema markup. Tenants serving large areas can list 20+ ZIP codes. If you only serve a handful, list those.

Service Radius (miles)

How far from your primary city you'll travel for deals.

1. Click the Service Radius field.
2. Enter a number between 1 and 500 (default is 25).

Used by listing search and Walk Score widgets to filter content to your reach. Set this realistically — a 50-mile radius for a Phoenix-based investor covers the whole metro plus most outlying cities.

You save by clicking the Save button at the bottom of the Service Area card.

1. Fill in all the fields above (at minimum, City and State Abbreviation are required).
2. Pick your geo scope.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the card.
4. Click 💾 Save Service Area.
5. Wait for the green confirmation: "Service area saved successfully!"

Changes go live immediately. Your homepage, About page, footer, and every existing blog post update on the next page load.

Your location tokens setup powers more places across SiteStakes than any other setting. One save updates everything automatically.

Every page on your real estate website re-renders the location tokens — {{site.city}}, {{site.state}}, {{site.county}}, {{site.metro}}, {{site.region}}, {{site.geo}}, {{site.nearby_cities}}, and {{site.zip_codes}} — using the new values. Every new blog post written by AI gets geographically grounded in your service area. The auto-generated location pages use your nearby cities list to know which cities to create pages for.

Schema markup updates next. The LocalBusiness and RealEstateAgent schema embedded on every page uses your address, areaServed, and geoCircle from these fields, so Google reads your service area directly. Your footer NAP gets city and state from service area automatically, keeping all NAP citations consistent.

Lead magnet content also updates. Every PDF ebook you send has your city, state, and region in the footer. Drip sequence emails include your city in the signature line. Google Maps embeds and Walk Score widgets re-center on your city with your service radius.